MALTON & Norton RUFC rose back up the North One East table after returning to winning ways with a 17-7 success over Bridlington at the Gannock.

The match was a battle at times but tries by Matt Bowman, Rob Featherstone and Tom Lowry were enough to see the hosts bag four points and climb to seventh in the standings, above Brid on points-difference.

M&N had been left looking over their shoulders following defeat at Percy Park seven days earlier, but they are now looking upwards and a victory at home to Bradford & Bingley on Saturday could lift them up to fifth, level on points with the Bees.

Spokesman James Knock said: "This was a solid effort by the whole squad and testament to their resilience coming back after a testing afternoon last week.

"Let us hope for a similar outcome (against Bradford & Bingley), with Malton's home form and vocal crowd support a telling factor."

The Percy Park loss was compounded by injuries to Jamie Rounthwaite (neck) and Tom Foan (concussion) and both were missing on Saturday.

Bridlington brought a heavyweight pack and at first a repeat of the Park defeat, where Malt were overpowered up front, looked on the cards with the visitors dominating the scrum.

However, the hosts absorbed the pressure and on 10 minutes a drive upfield led by tireless skipper Sam Triffitt saw them camped on the Brid line.

Following two pick-ups and drives, Bowman, playing in his preferred number seven shirt, strode over for a try.

On 25 minutes, Brid removed their juggernaut prop from the fray and Malton started to even up the account at set piece.

However, the visitors soon took the lead. The fluffed a clear two-man overlap but two minutes later corrected this aberration by setting up a perfect midfield move for the attacking full-back to stride through and sprint 25 metres to the line. The try was converted for a 7-5 lead.

The battle resumed and on 38 minutes it spilled over with some fisticuffs. The referee let it blow over despite home supporters calling for a card to be showed to Brid's winger.

Tempers flared again after the interval with the same visiting player and home man Bowman being sin-binned.

Malton prop Charlie Corner also exited with a sore shoulder five minutes in, with replacement Simon Thompson making his first appearance of the season.

Thompson's fresh legs helped to galvanise the Malton pack, who drove up to Brid's line where Featherstone crashed over for a 57th-minute try converted by Paul Angus.

The next 15 minutes saw end-to-end rugby with both sides going at it.

For Malton, good defensive line speed and strong tackling in midfield was led by the prominent Callum Stark, who nailed his man every time.

In the 75th minute, Lowry scampered over in the corner to seal the game for Malton, with Brid two minutes later attempting a long-range penalty kick in a forlorn effort to salvage a losing bonus point.